Firstly, its time to accept, Dua Zahra case isn’t a case of kidnapping or human trafficking involving a gang, its about freedom of choice and freedom of association. Wrong advises from wrong people shaped this case to such an ending.
Secondly, hand on heart, do you really think by the looks of that boy he belonged to some human trafficking gang?
He looks like Alice in wonderland. Except neither he’s having a good time like Alice, nor he’s in wonderland. Here, this Alice was stuck in Sindh courts. May God be with this boy. Don’t know what he did to be going through all this.
While a girl left Karachi, went to Lahore, got married, and was moved from city to city, Ma’am Shehla Raza Abidi could not get over the fact that a teenager traveled to Lahore from Karachi on her own. This shows the level of intellect our governance carries.
Shehla Raza Abidi even after the court decision could not believe that a teenager with ample experience over the internet could book a ride from Karachi to Lahore and reach her destination safely. Such was the level of people handling the case.
There are so many holes in this interview. Shehla admits that even when she met Dua Zahra in privacy in Darul Aman she was adamant that she went on her own. She was minimizing the boy and his family by saying that they are gardeners at the University of Punjab. Then her lack of understanding of the internet and mobile for Dua to book a ride till Lahore.
Then the parents.
So a girl was so deep down in a relationship that she took the decision of leaving home and traveling over 1000kms and the parents saw no change in her behavior during all this time? Clearly, the girl suffered from lack of attention.
Though later facts did emerge that a proposal was sent to Dua’s house which was rejected by her parents. Here in my view the case was closed. It was not kidnapping. Most of the journalists reporting the case knew that the parents were lying out of their teeth from the first presser.
The father straight away denied involvement of any boy in the case. He was lying. Dua Zahra had talked to her parents about the boy. In fact, the boy’s family was on their way to Karachi for proposal but was sent back by Dua saying she’ll come herself.
All this was happening because the girl was Shia and the boy was Sunni. The rejection of the proposal and the hurling of damning comments about the boy’s family saying that they were some sort of gang, all was happening because of the difference of sects nothing else.
After reporting and editing for more than ten years in Lahore, journalists know there are certain patterns of cases. In cases where the girl leaves houses on their own choice the case is destined to be registered as lost person or kidnapping. Because when the affected parents walk to the police, either their relatives out of vengeance want a kidnapping case registered so they could punish the boy, or the police out of sympathy or financial favour show them this way themselves.
Dua’s husband is lucky that he isn’t in prison. In most of such cases the girls family usually get their girl back and the boy usually goes to prison on charges of kidnaping. While the girl faces the wrath by being beaten by parents, looked down upon by neighbors, the boy rots in jail. And such stories are usually reported as kidnap cases to the media and data collecting institutes. Which they are not. In over 95% of the cases the girl goes with consent. In most of the cases the girl is the one who plans the escape. Because after rejection and the toxic environment of the house, it gets difficult for her to stay there longer.
How did the age determining test say that Dua was around 17? When the couple got married just 17 years ago. Age tests cannot determine the exact age of anyone. Its a rounded-off figure. And when someone is above the age of puberty the round-off figure (which can put a difference of 1-3 years) can decide the case.
Well, that wasn’t the problem for Dua, even if she was 16, you can get married in Punjab. Its totally legal. Dua got married in Punjab, not Sindh, where the age limit is 18. So technically, Dua and her husband were dragged into such a drama for no reason.
This is Dua’s mother in law, who according to Dua’s parents and Government of Sindh belongs to a human trafficking gang.
All this boils down to the parents of Dua. In one presser her father said that she never left her house, and never went to public gatherings without them. While they were being so watchful they gave a blind eye to what she was doing at home while she had the whole world in her hands (her mobile) in her room.
I’m sure a kid before taking such a big step would have argued a lot at home. They should have given in. Dua was as rigid as her parents.
Even the claim that Dua said she wants to go home with her parents was misleading. The father slipped up during his last presser saying that they were successful in brainwashing the child then turned away and said something else.
Dua might have said that she wanted to go home with her parents because now she wasn’t even with her husband. She was jailed in Dar-ul-Amaan, it was obviously better for her to go home with her parents. But once she would be home, she would have tried to go to her husband again. This is what Dua’s parents should think about.
You can only cultivate an environment which shapes choices, you cannot force-stop choices, especially with Gen-Z.
He is a Pakistani journalist, documentary producer and teaches journalism at various universities in Lahore. He is a silver medalist in MPhil Mass communication and has reported and edited for a number of English print media organizations in Pakistan.
